Three reasons why Nevada’s caucuses were an embarrassment to the state

Nevada state GOP chair Amy Tarkanian boasted this week that her state will turn Republican in the next presidential election. Not likely if her state GOP runs that show like it ran the Nevada caucuses, which were an embarrassing display of bad planning and execution on multiple levels.

Aside from the scheduling, the choice of caucus locations, and the decision to shut out thousands of workers on the Las Vegas strip which we’ve detailed here, let’s now clue you all in on the litany of other problems:

1. The GOP couldn’t deliver results in a timely manner.

An all-night count — in a state where just about 50,000 cast votes? We’ve seen developing countries where folks lining up to vote with purple thumbs do better. ‘Nuf said.

2. Confusion reigns: There were eye-opening protests and confusion at the evening caucus set up for “religious” voters (and uh, one casino magnate billionaire) at We saw frustration and anger when voters were turned away after some balked at signing an affidavit required by the Clark County GOP; it asked voters to declare under penalty of perjury that they couldn’t vote in the regular 9 a.m. morning caucus because of “religious reasons.”

Some complained the whole process was designed to restrict voters there to Jews and Seventh Day Adventist who both observe Saturday as the Sabbath.

First, here’s the SFChronicle/SFGate.com’s own Shaky Hand Productions capturing Nevada voters who say they had other important reasons for not voting in the morning caucuses, and they thought that “religious” standard was discriminatory.

Hey, we’re not attorneys, but it’s an argument that seems destined for legal challenges:

And here’s the Clark County GOP chair, David Gibbs, defending his decision to require such a standard for voting:

3. Clueless media policies: Nevada’s Clark County GOP made it downright frustrating to cover an election — it appears by design. The county organization, under the guise of “security purposes,” made media jump through hoops to even get in to observe these gatherings. And they weren’t unusual here: about a third of the state counties didn’t allow media coverage and observation of their election at all — an outrageous decision that should have been condemned by state party officials.

The hostility didn’t stop there. One AP reporter was called a “Marxist” at the meeting she attended, another reporter told us he was ordered not to take photos, and a Los Angeles Times reporter was actually ejected from a caucus meeting, after some attendees at the Sun City Anthem senior center in Henderson booed her and called her a “spy.”

We’re not joking. Maybe it’s time for those esteemed conservative elders who did the deed to review their well-worn copies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights — starting with the First Amendment.

Finally, we asked Tarkanian about all this. She didn’t express any concerns about the process, and seemed nonplussed (and frankly, not informed) about the reports of media harassment as of about 11 p.m. last night, when they were widely covered on Twitter and in other media.